Mandeep has ability to do well for India in all formats: Hussey

Hyderabad: Kings XI Punjab's stand-in captain David Hussey's comments after their defeat to Rajasthan Royal in the last match seems to have spurred his players. Hussey had said that it was their worst performance.

On Tuesday, they put up a clinical show to defeat Deccan Chargers by 25 runs.

KXIP skipper Hussey praised young opener Mandeep Singh for his scintillating 45-ball 75. Hussey described him as a future India player who can play in all three formats of the game.

While Mandeep helped Punjab to post a challenging 170 for 5, it was Hussey who turned the game in KXIP's favour when he dismissed Daniel Harris (30) and Cameron White in a space of four balls in his only over.

The following are excerpts

David Hussey: It was one of those nights when everything went in our favour. It was a pretty convincing win in the end. I thought that the batters set the tone. We managed to strike partnerships in the middle overs… I thought the partnerships proved to be crucial for posting a good target.

Mandeep Singh is going from strength to strength. The best thing about Mandeep is he can hit good balls to the boundary with ease. He is a very special player. I think he's the one for the future. He has the ability to do well in all three forms for India…

We have two better spinners than me in the team. So I am more than happy with that. I thought Praveen Kumar's opening spell was pretty good. He did not let them score runs easily… We haven't played too well at home, but we hope to win the reverse fixture.

Kumar Sangakkara: I thought the difference today was the bowling in the first four overs. We bowled too short on a wicket that was offering a good amount of pace and still had something in it for the bowlers.

It was easy for batsmen to play strokes when you were bowling too short. Mandeep and others did not fail to capitalise on the mistakes committed by our bowlers. We made too many mistakes in this tournament. When nothing works in your favour, you try out different things. There is always a bit of uncertainty whether those plans will work or not. If they do not work, I believe that it is time that you go back to the basics and try to keep things simple.

On a wicket like that, Kings XI showed us how to bowl and where to bowl. I hope the guys have learnt from their mistakes today. When you are playing T20 cricket, you want to restrict the opposition to a score of 150 on a wicket like this.

Though Mandeep and David Miller batted really well, I thought our bowlers were wayward and should have bowled at a much tighter line.

Mandeep Singh: David Hussey has always supported us, especially the youngsters. He has shown a lot of faith in me. I hope that I am performing to his expectations.

I'm really satisfied today. From the beginning of the tournament, I wanted to play well and stay till the 15th over… That happened today...

I got the runs for the team… The batsmen actually knew that they have to perform today on this wicket. In the end, I am glad that the batsmen came to the party.

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